CAIRO: Egypt’s President Abdel Fattah Al Sisi and Palestinian leader Mahmud Abbas yesterday mulled holding a donors’ conference to rebuild Gaza, the Egyptian presidency said.
Sisi and Abbas, who discussed ways to end the Israeli offensive on the Palestinian enclave, also agreed that Israeli crossings to the besieged Gaza be opened to facilitate movement of people and goods.
It was not clear whether they were also referring to Egypt’s Rafah border crossing with Gaza.
The two leaders met amid intensifying global efforts to end the deadly conflict as Israel and Hamas, the Palestinian Islamist movement that is the main power in Gaza, resumed their strikes, after a brief halt of hostilities yesterday on humanitarian grounds.
“The two presidents agreed on the urgency of holding a donors conference to immediately start rebuilding the Gaza Strip,” a statement from the Egyptian presidency said.
It said Sisi and Abbas agreed on the “necessity of an immediate ceasefire” based on an Egyptian plan to stop the conflict that has killed at least 240 Palestinians since Israel launched Operation Protective Edge on July 8 to stamp out rocket fire from Gaza militants.
Egypt sharply criticised Hamas yesterday, saying they could have saved dozens of lives had they accepted a Cairo-mediated truce.
Hamas, the Islamist rulers of the besieged enclave, had rejected the ceasefire intended to start on Tuesday and continued firing rockets at Israeli cities.
“Had Hamas accepted the Egyptian proposal, it could have saved the lives of at least 40 Palestinians,” Foreign Minister Sameh Shoukri said, quoted by state news agency MENA.
He accused Hamas of plotting with Qatar and Turkey to “frustrate Egypt’s regional role.”
Abbas met in Cairo on Wednesday Hamas deputy leader Mussa Abu Marzuq, who insisted on changes to the Egyptian truce plan, including guarantees on opening border crossings to Gaza.
The initiative called for a return to an Egyptian-brokered 2012 ceasefire that ended eight days of fighting, and loosened border restrictions on goods for the blockaded coastal enclave.
AFP
